Formation of diamond-like carbon by fs laser irradiation of organic liquids

The high intensities generated in femtosecond (fs) laser interactions offers the possibility of novel formation routes for diamond and diamond-like carbon materials. Coulomb explosion, a common phenomenon in intensive fs irradiation, has recently been shown to lead to a direct graphite–diamond phase transition on the surface of graphite. In this paper we report the results of fs irradiation of a variety of liquid organic compounds at intensities in the Coulomb explosion regime. The products of laser-induced chemistry under these conditions have been studied using visual/surface enhanced Raman and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Surface enhanced Raman spectra/TEM show that an intermediate diamond phase, trans-polyacetylene chains and amorphous carbon are present after fs irradiation of liquid alkanes. We also find that the diamond component can be enhanced by irradiation in the presence of certain transition metals; however the origin of this effect is still uncertain. Diamond films deposited in this way are found to exhibit a nano-assembled structure involving individual nanodiamonds extending over an area of about 1 cm2. This process represents a wet chemical method for room temperature formation of diamond-like carbon films